We all know that antibiotics have been effective against bacterial infections but not viral ones. This is why there has been no cure for the common cold. However, researchers at MIT's Lincoln Laboratory have now developed a drug that promises to not just treat but cure not only some but all types viral infections including the most horrific ones. It targets cells that have produced a type of RNA that is only manufactured as the result of viral intrusion so it leaves uninfected cells unharmed. Thus far it has been tested on and found to be a cure for 15 types of viral infections.

Per the article:

The drug works by targeting a type of RNA produced only in cells that have been infected by viruses. “In theory, it should work against all viruses,” says Todd Rider, a senior staff scientist in Lincoln Laboratory’s Chemical, Biological, and Nanoscale Technologies Group who invented the new technology. Because the technology is so broad-spectrum, it could potentially also be used to combat outbreaks of new viruses, such as the 2003 SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome) outbreak, Rider says.......When mice were treated with DRACO, they were completely cured of the infection. The tests also showed that DRACO itself is not toxic to mice.

The findings have been published in the July 27, 2011 journal, PLoS One.